This image shows some of the cratered terrain of Venus.
Click on image for full size NASA/JPL

Venus Cratered Terrain

This is an example of the cratered terrain on Venus.

Venusian craters are a little unusual in that there is a large amount of impact melt around the crater. This means either that the temperature of the surface is high enough, coupled with the energy of the impact to melt the surface near the crater, or that objects are slowed by the thick atmosphere of Venus that they blow up in the atmosphere prior to the impact with the ground, and create a small crater and a spotch of material.

The other unusual feature of craters on Venus is that the entire Venusian terrain seems to have the same amount of cratering, and that amount of cratering is the same as cratering on the Earth's surface today. Since we know that the Earth has an active and young surface, this piece of evidence suggests that the surface of Venus is active too.

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